Calendar

Oct
8
Tue
Poetry at Literati: Jon Sands: It’s Not Magic @ Literati
Oct 8 @ 7:00 pm – 8:30 pm

We welcome Jon Sands as part of our ongoing Poetry at Literati series, in support of his latest collection It’s Not Magic. Free and open to the public. Book signing to follow. 

About the collection: Snapshots of youth, displayed with verve and sparkling clarity, in a new collection of poems that “dazzles with its linguistic sleight of hand” (Richard Blanco). From jaunts through New York subways, to a Cincinnati Waffle House, to a chance encounter with one’s future life partner, Sands writes in turns autobiographically and imaginatively, drawing on voices from his private world and the public sphere to create an urgent portrait of youth that is almost rebellious in its sheer, persistent joy. Nostalgic and vivid, this collection of poems is written reverie. Selected by Richard Blanco, Jon Sands is the winner of the 2018 National Poetry Series.

Jon Sands is the author of The New Clean and the cohost of The Poetry Gods podcast. His work has been featured in the New York Times and anthologized in The Best American Poetry. He’s received residencies and fellowships from the Blue Mountain Center, the Brooklyn Arts Council, the Council of Literary Magazines and Presses, and the Jerome Foundation. He lives in Brooklyn, NY.

Oct
9
Wed
Noon Lecture Series: Patti Smith and Britain Woodman: Vanishing Ann Arbor @ Kempf House
Oct 9 @ 12:00 pm – 1:00 pm

Join “Vanishing Ann Arbor’ authors Patti Smith and Britain Woodman as they take you on a tour of our city’s past, from the places you remember to the places you don’t.

Poetry Salon: One Pause Poetry @ Argus Farm Stop
Oct 9 @ 8:00 pm – 10:00 pm

ONE PAUSE POETRY SALON is (literally) a greenhouse for poetry and poets, nurturing an appreciation for written art in all languages and encouraging experiments in creative writing.

We meet every Weds in the greenhouse at Argus Farm Stop on Liberty St. The poems we read each time are unified by form (haiku, sonnet, spoken word), poet, time / place (Tang Dynasty, English Romanticism, New York in the 70s) or theme / mood (springtime, poems with cats, protest poems). We discuss the poems and play writing games together, with time for snacks and socializing in between.

Members are encouraged to share their own poems or poems they like – they may or may not relate to the theme of the evening. This is not primarily a workshop – we may hold special workshop nights, but mostly we listen to and talk about poems for the sake of inspiring new writing.

Whether you are a published poet or encountering poetry for the first time, we invite you to join us!

$5 suggested donation for food, drinks and printing costs.

8-10 p.m., Argus Farm Stop greenhouse, 325 W. Liberty. $5 suggested donation. onepausepoetry.org, 707-1284.

 

 

 

Oct
10
Thu
MQR Fall Issue Launch @ Literati
Oct 10 @ 7:00 pm – 8:30 pm

The Michigan Quarterly Review launches its fall issue. Details and contributor bios to come. Stay tuned!

Open Mic and Share: Paul Bernstein @ Bookbound
Oct 10 @ 7:00 pm – 8:30 pm

We are pleased to present Ann Arbor poet Paul Bernstein who will read from his new poetry book, What the Owls Know.  He began publishing his poetry as an undergrad at U of M in the 1960s.  Paul was not only a member of Ann Arbor’s vibrant artistic and cultural  community but also an SDS militant and later editor/writer for the  underground paper Up Against the Wall Street Journal. After leaving school he embarked on a varied career as a library  worker/weekend hippie, anti-war activist, full-time staff writer for  various radical socialist papers, medical editor, and managing editor.  Paul resumed writing poetry some 20 years ago and his work now appears  regularly in journals and anthologies. He is also a prizewinning amateur  country music lyricist and a published photographer. Recent work has  also appeared or is forthcoming in Down in the Dirt, Third Wednesday, Muddy River Poetry Review, New Plains Review, and U.S. 1 Worksheets. Paul moved back to Ann Arbor in 2011, where he often attends and/or participates in local poetry events.
The  event begins with an Open Mic session when area poets can read their  own work or share a favorite poem by another author in a welcoming  atmosphere. This is part of a monthly series on the 2nd Thursday of most  months in partnership with Les Go Social Media Marketing and Training. Light refreshments, signing to follow.

 “In  his debut poetry collection, Paul Bernstein takes stock of a life,  experiencing the richness and despairs of this material world and  anticipating his soul’s inevitable transmigration to the next. Like the  owls in the title poem, Bernstein voices wisdom that others may fear, as  he and the night birds “lurk in gloom / for ghosts to rise up / from  their graves.” These are poems from a man who has seen life stretch both  before and behind him, both a youthful traveler “romp[ing] in the  cowboy west” and an older, more disillusioned presence “stuck with you, /  a dead lump of stone / I can’t move,” a Sisyphus of the heart who  awaits eventual relief. Come join Bernstein in his astute poems, which  snatch moments of sly joy, meaning, and possible redemption like seeds  scattered throughout the rocky ground of a fully-lived life.”
—John F. Buckley, Author, Sky Sandwiches 

Oct
11
Fri
Fiction at Literati: Eileen Pollack: The Professor of Immortality, and in conversation with Lillian Li @ Literati
Oct 11 @ 7:00 pm – 8:30 pm

Author and former director of the Helen Zell Writers’ Program at The University of Michigan visits as part of our ongoing Fiction at Literati Series, in support of her new novel The Professor of Immortality. Eileen will be in-conversation with Literati bookseller and author Lillian Li. A book signing will follow. The event is free and open to the public. 

About the book: Professor Maxine Sayers once found her personal and professional life so fulfilling that she founded the Institute of Future Studies, a program dedicated to studying the effects of technology on our culture and finding ways to prolong human life. But when her beloved husband dies, she is so devastated she can barely get out of bed. To make matters worse, her son, Zach, has abruptly quit his job in Silicon Valley and been out of contact for seven months. Maxine is jolted from her grief by her sudden suspicion that a favorite former student (and a former close friend of her son) might be a terrorist called the Technobomber and that Zach might either be involved in or become a victim of this extremist’s bombing. Deserting her teaching responsibilities, her ailing mother, and an appealing suitor, Maxine feels compelled to set out and search for her son in order to warn and protect him, even as she knows she should report her suspicions to the FBI to prevent greater carnage.

Eileen Pollack graduated with a BS in physics from Yale and earned an MFA in creative writing from the University of Iowa. She is the author of the novels The Bible of Dirty JokesA Perfect LifeBreaking and Entering, andParadise, New York, the short-story collections In the Mouth and The Rabbi in the Attic, and the nonfiction books The Only Woman in the Room: Why Science Is Still a Boys’ Club and Woman Walking Ahead: In Search of Catherine Weldon and Sitting Bull. She has received fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts, the Michener Foundation, the Rona Jaffe Foundation, and the Massachusetts Arts Council. Her novella “The Bris” was chosen to appear in Best American Short Stories, edited by Stephen King; two other stories have been awarded Pushcart Prizes, and her essay “Pigeons” was selected by Cheryl Strayed for Best American Essays. Formerly the director of the MFA Program in Creative Writing at the University of Michigan, she now lives in New York City.

Lillian Li received her BA from Princeton and her MFA from the University of Michigan. She is the recipient of a Hopwood Award in Short Fiction, as well as Glimmer Train‘s New Writer Award. Her work has been featured in Guernica, Granta, and Jezebel. She is from the D.C. metro area and lives in Ann Arbor, Michigan. Number One Chinese Restaurant is her first novel.

Oct
14
Mon
Ann Patchett: The Dutch House @ Rackham Auditorium
Oct 14 @ 7:00 pm – 8:30 pm

Tickets available now. Purchase them here.

Literati Bookstore is honored to welcome Ann Patchett to Rackham Auditorium for an event in support of her latest novel, The Dutch House, and in benefit of the Book Industry Charitable Foundation.

Established in 1996, The Book Industry Charitable Foundation’s mission is to strengthen the bookselling community through charitable programs that support bookstore employees and their families. The Foundation was imagined and built by booksellers and proudly continues to be their safety net. Since its inception, the organization has provided more than $6.6 million in financial assistance and scholarships to more than 7,476 families. Find out more about The Foundation and donate here.

The program will consist of an author talk and Q&A.

A very limited number of VIP tickets are available. These tickets provide access to a 5:30pm-6:30pm pre-event meet & greet with Ann at the Michigan League (light refreshments served), a hardcover copy of The Dutch House, and reserved general admission seating for the event at Rackham. All proceeds, after the price of the book, from this ticket go directly to the Book Industry Charitable Foundation. Additional reception details and instructions will be sent to guests ahead of the event.

General admission book bundle tickets are also available and include a pre-signed copy of The Dutch House, to be picked up at the venue the evening of the event.

Surface parking in downtown Ann Arbor may be limited. A detailed map of available (and walkable) parking structures can be found here.

About The Dutch House:

At the end of the Second World War, Cyril Conroy combines luck and a single canny investment to begin an enormous real estate empire, propelling his family from poverty to enormous wealth. His first order of business is to buy the Dutch House, a lavish estate in the suburbs outside of Philadelphia. Meant as a surprise for his wife, the house sets in motion the undoing of everyone he loves.

The story is told by Cyril’s son Danny, as he and his older sister, the brilliantly acerbic and self-assured Maeve, are exiled from the house where they grew up by their stepmother. The two wealthy siblings are thrown back into the poverty their parents had escaped from and find that all they have to count on is one another. It is this unshakeable bond between them that both saves their lives and thwarts their futures.

Set over the course of five decades, The Dutch House is a dark fairy tale about two smart people who cannot overcome their past. Despite every outward sign of success, Danny and Maeve are only truly comfortable when they’re together. Throughout their lives they return to the well-worn story of what they’ve lost with humor and rage. But when at last they’re forced to confront the people who left them behind, the relationship between an indulged brother and his ever-protective sister is finally tested.

Ann Patchett is the author of seven novels and three works of nonfiction. She is the winner of the PEN/Faulkner Award, England’s Orange Prize, and the Book Sense Book of the Year, and was named one of Time magazine’s 100 Most Influential People in the World. Her work has been translated into more than thirty languages. She is the co-owner of Parnassus Books in Nashville, Tennessee, where she lives with her husband, Karl, and their dog, Sparky.

Additional event questions? Email John@LiteratiBookstore.com

Dennis Rasbauch: Joshua Lawrence Chamberlain and the Petersburg Campaign @ St. Jospeh Mercy Hospital (Exhibition Room)
Oct 14 @ 7:00 pm – 8:30 pm

Dennis A. Rasbach, MD, is a graduate of the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine. As a busy practicing surgeon, he is an unlikely author of a micro history of the Civil War experience at the Front of Petersburg on June 18, 1864. The inception of the book was pure serendipity. While investigating the movements of his great-great-grandfather’s regiment, the 21st Pennsylvania Cavalry, his focus was suddenly and unexpectedly diverted to Joshua Chamberlain and his famous charge. Glaring contradictions emerged as the popular narrative of that event was compared with the historical record. Those inconsistencies prompted an intense search for clarification and resolution, which, over the course of a year and with help from a network of new Civil War friends, grew into the present work. Dennis is a member of the Civil War Round Table of Southwest Michigan. The father of two sons, he resides with his lovely wife Ellen in St. Joseph, Michigan. Coincidentally, his birthday is June 18, the day of the Petersburg charge.

Jon Milan and Gail Offen: Michigan Haunts: Public Places, Eerie Spaces @ AADL Downtown
Oct 14 @ 7:00 pm – 8:30 pm

Michigan has always been a region of mystery. Many strange occurrences have been documented, and tales of allegedly paranormal activity continue to surface to the present day. From the notorious hauntings of remote lighthouses like Seul Choix, to the hauntings of Eloise—one of the most famous psychiatric asylums in America—to the ghost of Minnie Quay, who still wanders Northern Michigan shorelines, co-authors Jon Milan and Gail Offen explore Michigan’s most haunted places in their latest book, Michigan Haunts: Public Places, Eerie Spaces. Join us for a spooky evening of local history!

This event includes a signing with books for sale.

Oct
16
Wed
Zohar Weiman-Kelman: Queer Expectations: A Genealogy of Jewish Women’s Poetry @ Rackham (East Conference Room)
Oct 16 @ 4:00 pm – 5:30 pm

Zohar Weiman-Kelman will be discussing their recently published book, Queer Expectations: a Genealogy of Jewish Women’s Poetry (SUNY Press, 2018). Bringing together Jewish women’s poetry in English, Yiddish, and Hebrew from late nineteenth century through the 1970s, this talk will explore how Jewish women writers turned to poetry to write new histories. Developing “queer expectancy” as a conceptual tool for understanding how literary texts can both invoke and resist what came before, Weiman-Kelman demonstrates how poets push back against heteronormative imperatives of biological reproduction and inheritance, opting instead for connections that twist traditional models of gender and history. Looking backward in queer ways thus enables new histories to emerge, intervenes in a troubled present, and gives hope for unexpected futures.

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